Avidemux 2.4 preview 2 released now and it is quite stable and very easy to use, i pack all my hd files with it and i do little editing too.

Avidemux do not require external codecs.

Offical description:
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.

Here you can download it.
Avidemux download page